Talk:One of These Things
Not two songs...THREE!!! Reading through the list of comments on the talk page, I think that some of you are confused because not only is there a "Three of These Things;" there are actually two different songs both with the title "One of These Things." The "One of These Things" sung by Susan in the first episode has a completely different melody from the "One of These Things" sung by Cookie Monster in Season 2. Susan: "One of these things is not like the others..." (chord changes in middle) Cookie: "One of these things is not like the other things..." (no chord change) "Three of These Things": "Three of these things belong together..." :Can you post any video or audio samples? I'm not familiar with the version sung by Cookie Monster. -- Ken (talk) 22:49, April 15, 2010 (UTC) ::Search "Cookie Monster's Sorting Song" on YouTube. It's also on the "Sunny Days" DVD. ---- Jesse (talk) 22:53, April 15, 2010 (UTC) :::Hmm. When it started, I thought it was the backing track for "Three of these Things", but the chords are different. I'm starting to wonder if they just started messing with the basic song, and they were just variations that the songwriters and band came up with, but they may be buried in various "cue" listings on ASCAP, and not actually listed as separate songs. On the starfish/crab one, David sings different words, so I don't know if that should count as a different one, too. I'm not sure how to document all of the variations. -- Ken (talk) 23:07, April 15, 2010 (UTC) Two in Episode 0276? Two "One of These Things" segments are listed as appearing in Episode 0276 ("Three tools and a shoe" and "Three birds and a frog"). However, our guide says only the "Three birds and a frog" appeared in that episode. Was this a cut unbeknownst to us and known to another user, or is this a mistake? ---- Jesse (talk) 02:04, December 9, 2009 (UTC) Who wrote it? I just bought the 2007 reissue of The Sesame Street Songbook, and now I'm confused. It says that "One of These Things" has music by Joe Raposo, and words by Joe Raposo and Bruce Hart. But the old records just say (Raposo-Stone), so I have no idea if the records were wrong all these years, or if somehow Jon Stone may have sold or given his rights to Bruce Hart, maybe after Stone died. Can anybody help clear this up? -- Ken (talk) 04:48, 20 January 2008 (UTC) :Even if he "sold his rights" as you put it, it doesn't change authorship; just royalties. BMI has two listings for "One of These Things"; one credits Raposo/Stone/Hart and the other just Raposo. ASCAP has a listing which credits Raposo/Stone. The CTW archives list Raposo/Stone for 1972 and I can only find that one entry ("Three of these Things" is listed about 5 times). So yeah. Either there were a lot of small variants on the song as these guys worked on it, or the situation for who wrote it was very fuzzy. -- Wendy (talk) 14:46, 17 February 2008 (EST) ::I think it's just because of the variants, in lyrics and music ("Three of These Things" differs considerably from the original, but the databases seem to lump it all together, last time I checked). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:10, 17 February 2008 (UTC) New version Is there anything on the wiki about the new versions of this song that are playing now? For example in Episode 4134 (which I'm working on now) there is a version of the song against a red and white cartoon background. The intro ends with 4 circles on the screen - one representing the traditional "one of these things" game, one with feet representing a moving around game, one with a giant question mark, and one that says "1 2 3 _" which is a "what comes next" game. The song ends with "This is the game today" as three of the circles disappear, and the sketch that follows is of the category indicated. I'm working on Episode Guides, and I want to be able to link to a section for this new game if there is one! thanks --Kimmerie 23:15, 12 March 2007 (UTC) Attention I just sorted out the various versions by season, but not I am thinking that it might be a good idea to maybe create a chart (similar to the one used for various Sesame Street episode and sketch pages, as well as what's done for the song listing on Joe Raposo's page), which would include pictures, earliest known epsidoes, singers, and subjects from each individual performance (and perhaps also specify whetehr it is "One of These Things", "Three of These Things", or some other title variaiton, like "One of These Dings". I think this format should also be used for the various versions of "The People in Your Neighborhood" (mentioning what people the songs are about) and "Sing". --Minor muppetz 03:35, 9 December 2006 (UTC) Attention As Erik and Ingeborg said below, there are actually two songs used for the "One of These Things" game. One is a slower song with a tick-tock beat; the other is an up-tempo jam. This article should be about both songs, and should answer these questions: *Who wrote each song? Was it the same person? *Are the lyrics the same, or different? How you can tell which song is which? *Did they both start in the same season? If not, which one started later? *Which one is used on the albums? Have they both been on albums, or just one of them? It's easy to get confused between the two songs -- I did, until Erik pointed it out. This article should explain how to tell them apart. -- Danny (talk) 15:56, 22 July 2006 (UTC) :Actually, I wish we had some sound clips or video files for reference instead of all working from our memories, but my own memory *and* evidence from websites and especially the book G is for Growing suggests that these are completely different songs. The tick tock one is plain "One of These Things." The up-tempo song is the later but similar "Three of These Things" (which I've also seen listed as "Two of These Things"; someone should check on that, but it's quite likely that they just changed the number according to the demands of the skit). "Two of these things belong together/two of these things are kinda the same/''Can you guess which one of these doesn't belong here'." Truglio's book discusseses how the other song came about because of concerns that the first game was focusing on differences and "casting out," and in terms of the show's social curriculum and target audience for ethnic city kids, it was reworked to emphasize similarities, what's "kind the same." (I don't have the book handy, it was Syracuse U.'s copy, but if anyone has access to it, the direct quote would help). It's also possible that at some point down the road, the up-tempo lyric was applied to a variation of the original "One of These Things." I'm not ruling that out, but right now, we only have memories of two or three people to go by. On the other hand, in addition to Truglio, there's Tiny Dancer's Lyric Transcript of both songs, which supports the theory that the up-tempo version is the "Three of These/Two of These" song, and fuzzy memories are just conflating the two. Andrew Leal (talk) 16:25, 22 July 2006 (UTC) :Andrew--That desire to encourage diversity (as opposed to casting out) probably inspired the "Three of These Kids" variant (in which the fourth child is praised for "doing his own thing", rather than told he "just doesn't belong here"). --Ingeborg 00:32, 23 July 2006 (UTC) ::Well, people who have the Sesame Street Unpaved episodes and the record albums/CDs should be able to help here... -- Danny (talk) 16:30, 22 July 2006 (UTC) ::I'll search through YouTube for clips related to the songs; in the hundreds of Sesame Street clips I've noticed so far, some must have the evidence we need. --Ingeborg 00:32, 23 July 2006 (UTC) :::During the timeline sequence from ''The Street We Live On, there is a brief clip with Bob and Maria dressed in trenchcoats, with Bob singing averse that I haven't heard in any other versions. That verse is, "One of these things is not like the other, which one is different, do you know?" So there might be another variation (I hope that quoting a line of the song doens't infringe on copyright. If it does, then somebody can edit my quoting the line). --Minor muppetz 23:48, 23 July 2006 (UTC) Which song? Is this the song that goes "One of these things is not like the other" or the one that goes "One of these things just doesn't belong here"? -- Erik (talk) 19:45, 9 May 2006 (UTC) :Aren't they the same song? -- Danny (talk) 20:00, 9 May 2006 (UTC) ::They're completely different. Different lyrics, different melodies. The second one is more up-tempo. -- ''Erik (talk) 20:09, 9 May 2006 (UTC) :::Erik's right; although the same game has used both songs, each one has its own melody and enough differences in the lyrics to confuse a fan occasionally. :-) --Ingeborg 15:38, 22 July 2006 (UTC) Counterpart or coincidence? During my trips to Sweden, I noticed that some children's programming included a similar game called "One Must Go". Three major differences exist between the games, though: #The four things being compared were always animals (displayed as drawings). No other objects or symbols ever appeared in "One Must Go." #"One Must Go" never used a theme song, although it always opened with the same stage business: two actors opened a box which they described as full of animals (complete with zoo-like sound effects). The four animal drawings emerged into their own compartment. #"One Must Go" had more than one correct answer: each actor put three of the animals into one category, explaining why the fourth was the odd one out. (For instance, Actor #1 might classify three animals by the first letter of their names; Actor #2 might point out that the three animals ''he chose have legs, but the fourth one doesn't.) Does anybody else know whether the Swedish game is older than "One of These Things"? I suspect that one of them inspired the other... --Ingeborg 15:55, 22 July 2006 (UTC) One of those songs... :I found a link cartoon clip of the game on YouTube (with shoe prints as the compared objects, and an instrumental-only version of "One of These Things"). So far, nothing has turned up with "Three of These Things Belong Together"; here's hoping another fan has the right clip somewhere! --Ingeborg 21:46, 23 July 2006 (UTC) New version Is there anything on the wiki about the new versions of this song that are playing now? For example in Episode 4134 (which I'm working on now) there is a version of the song against a red and white cartoon background. The intro ends with 4 circles on the screen - one representing the traditional "one of these things" game, one with feet representing a moving around game, one with a giant question mark, and one that says "1 2 3 _" which is a "what comes next" game. The song ends with "This is the game today" as three of the circles disappear, and the sketch that follows is of the category indicated. I'm working on Episode Guides, and I want to be able to link to a section for this new game if there is one! thanks --Kimmerie 23:15, 12 March 2007 (UTC)